cottage cheese

an extremely soft, or loose, white, mild-flavored cheese made from skim-milk curds, usually without rennet.

Origin of cottage cheese

1840-1850

An Americanism dating back to 1840-50

Regional variation note

Farmer cheese and farmer's cheese are widely used throughout the U.S. as terms for a kind of cottage cheese. This same kind of cheese, with varying curd size and sourness, is also called sour-milk cheese in Eastern New England; curd or curd cheese, chiefly in the Northeastern and Southern U.S.; pot cheese, chiefly in the Hudson Valley; smearcase, chiefly in the North Midland U.S., and sometimes cream cheese in the Gulf States.